“The patient presented to my office on November
20, 2001 for a prolonged right shin stress fracture. He is
a triathlete and originally noticed the onset of pain in the
shin in August of 2001, which was diagnosed by his physician
as a stress fracture. The patient was treated with a cast
from the last week of September, for four weeks. After the
cast was removed, a bone scan was done which showed an area
of hot spots on the technetium scan, which coincided with
his perception of the site of pain in the lower shin.”

“At this point, the pain in the upper shin,
which had been present before the application of the cast,
has disappeared. One month later, the patient was still experiencing
pain in the lower shin with the perception of irregular swelling
along the shin bone in that area. There was no externally
visible skin sigh other than that. The patient had not been
able to exercise on his doctor's orders through the end of
the year.”

“The FASTT patch was applied to the lower
shin over the area of symptomatic pain and discontinued the
following day. The second patch was applied on the third day
and left to stand for three more days until it was taken off
on Thanksgiving, November 22, 2001. At this point, the patient
had no more pain. This had been a pain that had been persistent
for three months. The FASTT patch left an area of free rash
but was surrounded by erythema, which developed over the 24
hours after the FASTT patch was discontinued on Thanksgiving.”

“On examination in my office today, there
is no tenderness or swelling in the area of prior injury and
the patient declares there is no pain. An erythematous rash
consistent with an allergic topical dermatitis was present
surrounding the area that had received the direct herbal medication.
The area of direct application however did not have a rash;
therefore, it is presumed that he had contact dermatitis through
the material of canvas, which contained the herbal medicine
and extended out beyond it. The patient's impression was very
positive; he felt that it had definitely helped him, and he
would be motivated to treat future injuries with the FASTT
patch. This appeared to be a success.”